Ultra-thin and near-unity selective emitter for efficient cooling.

For the efficient radiative cooling of objects, coolers should emit heat within atmospheric transparent window and block heat absorption from the surrounding environments. Thus, selective emitters enable highly efficient cooling via engineered photonic structures such as metamaterials and multi-stacking structures. However, these structures require sophisticated fabrication processes and large quantities of materials, which can restrict mass-production. This study introduces an ultra-thin (∼1 μm) and near-unity selective emitter (UNSE) within the atmospheric window, which can be fabricated using simple and affordable process. The combination of infrared (IR) lossy layers and high index lossless layer enhances the resonance in the structure thus, the emissivity in long wavelength IR region increases to near-unity within a thickness of ∼1 μm.